Stories from a real life cowpuncher that will give you a smile and a glimpse of God.

There’s More Than One Way to Flank the Lost

by Kevin on May 14, 2012

The big calf bawled his disagreement at the four cowboys that were attempting to get him on the ground. Although the calf was big, it wasn’t his size or strength that was keeping him upright. It was the cowboys.

It was the first time I’d ever used a calf table. Colorado has been a first time for a lot of things. I’d never seen Nord Forks before either.

This particular calf table worked well…as long as you needed to brand on the left side. As luck would have it, there were four calves in the bunch that needed branding on the right side. Some cowboys just have to be different.

We got this big calf into the chute and slipped a rope around his neck and prepared to put the atomic cowboy flank drop on him. When we opened the gate, we got a hold of him.

Without going into too much detail about who was where and doing what, I’ll just give you the end result. Two cowboys were trying to throw this calf down on his left side and two cowboys had forgot and slipped into the habit of trying to throw the calf down on his right side. This resulted in the calf standing there while four cowboys pulled in two different directions. Just in case you’re wondering…this method is not very effective.

Finally, we figured it out and worked together. It didn’t take long once we worked together and it was a whole lot easier. Quite frankly, it took a lot more effort fighting against the other two that were fighting against us than it did to get the calf down and branded.

This same scenario plays out all across the country. Instead of working together to achieve a common goal (introducing the lost to Jesus Christ), Christians fight about which side to flank the calf on. They spend more time arguing about the method than they do actually getting results.

They will argue and defend their method to the death. They will pull out their Bibles and make it say whatever they want to so that they can be right. These folks will rally other like-minded-method folks to their side to show strength in numbers. Books are written pleading the case for this method or that method while the other side uses the same tactics to defend and counter-attack.

And while all this is going on, the lost person they were trying to reach walks over the hill…not wanting to be part of all that arguing and fighting and is never seen again.

Just because most people brand on the left side doesn’t make branding on the right side wrong. And there’s nothing in the Good Book to say that you have to flank only on one side. Let’s worry more about the results than the methods.

25 Jesus knew what they were thinkin’ and said, “Any crew that is divided won’t be able to get the job done. You can’t pull on the reins and spur at the same time and expect to get anywhere.” Matthew 12:25 (Simplified Cowboy Version)